The NHL’s American Expansion Path
This past season, the NHL established a more aggressive and strategically focused expansion era by resolving the long-troubled Arizona franchise and approving its relocation to Salt Lake City under credible ownership. With 32 teams now established, the league has a balanced structure, but given the success of the Vegas, Seattle, and Utah expansions, the NHL will likely push for additional teams in the near future.
Big Markets, Bigger Bets
Houston is an obvious choice; it’s one of the largest U.S. markets with a robust corporate presence. The city has a natural rivalry with Dallas, and a second team in Texas makes a lot of sense given the Stars’ success.
The Toyota Center has held AHL games in the past and can accommodate a regulation rink, but lacks the optimization for a full NHL season. It’s still possible that, with investment, the arena is a viable short-term option if an ownership group comes forward.
Atlanta is more challenging because the NHL has already failed there twice, but the market is massive, and the NHL still believes in growing the game in the southeastern United States. This is a strategic center for making that happen, and with a nurturing mindset, this market is important to re-enter.
Returning to Phoenix remains a long-term necessity for the NHL, regardless of how clean the Salt Lake City transition may appear. The region is the 11th-largest media market in the U.S. and continues to experience rapid growth.
The league's persistence in keeping the franchise there for so long wasn’t just stubbornness; it was rightly rooted in the belief that this market is simply too valuable to abandon. A return will require airtight ownership and a permanent arena solution, but a logical analysis likely views Phoenix as unfinished business, not a closed chapter.
Timing-wise and given the money involved in expansion fees, Seattle paid $650M and the next round would likely top that, it’s only a matter of time before the league wants to cash in again.
The league should absolutely prioritize Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix; those three metros are simply too significant to ignore, and the upside far outweighs the history of past failure. It’s not about fitting hockey into a market, but nurturing it and providing a strong on-ice product, where the team becomes a pillar of the city’s identity.
There are a few other specific ideas that hockey fans have discussed in the past. A place like Kansas City, although unsuccessful so far in hockey, has a rapidly growing downtown and a potential arena in the T-Mobile Center. Milwaukee has shown solid hockey interest with the Admirals, and if the Bucks’ ownership were involved, there could be financial backing. Even Portland, which doesn’t get talked about as much, has an arena in the Moda Center and could tap into the Pacific Northwest rivalry with Seattle and Vancouver.
Beyond these larger metro options, the deeper cut markets are where the fun starts. These places aren’t obvious picks; but that’s what makes them interesting. You’re not walking into these places expecting sellouts on day one, you’re looking for fertile ground, where if you plant the right seed with the right owner and message, you can grow a loyal, profitable fan base from scratch.
Tradition Isn’t the Only Strategy
The macro trajectory of NHL expansion in the United States is increasingly shaped by a combination of media leverage, regional population shifts, and the league’s evolving strategic priorities. Over the last two decades, the NHL has emphasized its long-term value in embedding itself deeper into major U.S. markets, particularly in the South and West, where population growth and TV market size outpace traditional hockey interest.
Expansion focuses less on hockey culture and more on media footprint, controlling valuable real estate, and owning a share of major metro economies. The NHL has shown it's willing to play the long game in large markets, betting that ownership stability and arena control will eventually turn things around. From a league standpoint, being in those cities is more valuable than not, even if it means beginning with weak attendance.
In the U.S., trying to find “hockey cities” usually ends up just circling the same handful of cold-weather regions. That’s not scalable. What is scalable is broader sports culture, especially in metro areas with disposable income, an appetite for live entertainment, and an identity vacuum that a team can help fill. So it’s less about choosing “hockey towns” and more about planting roots in cities that can absorb and grow a team brand as part of their identity. At this point, the real game for the league is owning distribution channels in America’s most commercially valuable cities, regardless of whether the locals grew up skating on ponds.
To this end, arena location and accessibility are everything. Downtown presence not only boosts attendance and corporate involvement, but it also reinforces a team’s cultural relevance. NHL-only development projects are a hard sell in most U.S. cities; that’s why leveraging existing NBA infrastructure is smart, it gives them instant access to prime real estate without the uphill battle of building solo. A shared arena also creates economic viability right out the gate and minimizes municipal friction.
Every pro team is a node in the city’s cultural and economic network. Having a franchise means the NHL is visible in that city’s advertising landscape, news cycles, merchandise economy, and civic psyche. That presence becomes its own form of equity. The long-term play isn’t about winning fans; it’s about becoming part of a city’s ecosystem. When the NHL isn’t in a top-15 market, they’re forfeiting the largest opportunities.
Hockey in Paradise
San Diego is a market that looks less like a gamble and more like a missed opportunity. On the surface, it’s a beach town too distracted for hockey, but the makeup of the city, the culture, and the position it holds in Southern California, San Diego says different.
The population base is massive, San Diego proper is over 1.3 million, and the greater metro is above 3 million. It’s one of the most stable, high-income, educated cities in the U.S., with a professional class that can afford season tickets and a regional identity that’s separated from LA’s orbit. It’s a lifestyle-heavy city with plenty of money and civic pride but only one major sport to rally around.
The biggest challenge is always arena infrastructure, and there’s no NHL-ready building in place, but a smart owner with vision could look at the potential of a multi-use entertainment district. Anchored by an arena, paired with real estate, hotels, or retail, it’s a worthwhile option, especially if tied to revitalization or downtown development plans.
From a business standpoint, San Diego gives you media reach without fighting for attention in the LA basin, and it gives the NHL another option for a West Coast anchor to expand media rights on the Pacific side.
San Diego isn’t flashy on the surface, but with vision, it’s a clean slate waiting for a smart investor to turn it into something that lasts. It’s not an NHL market, but it’s a strategic and forward-thinking bet. A winter sport isn’t some far-fetched idea there, it’s an entertainment alternative to 365 days of sunshine and surfing.
A New Type of Grit
Baltimore is not a city people usually bring up in NHL expansion talks, but it potentially has some really compelling upside. It sits in an incredibly strategic corridor, between Washington and Philadelphia, with a metro population of over 2 million and access to millions more potential fans in the broader Mid-Atlantic.
The region is steeped in hockey culture thanks to the Flyers and Caps, and it’s a place with a gritty, blue-collar identity. From a market perspective, it’s more nuanced than most realize. Baltimore’s population isn’t growing like Houston or Atlanta, but its urban density, public transit, and regional sprawl mean it still has the reach to draw serious crowds if done right.
There’s also a strong sports identity. The Ravens and Orioles have some of the most loyal, emotionally invested fanbases in their leagues. The key here would be positioning and narrative. This can’t be a team that feels like it’s parachuting into D.C.’s backyard. It has to be branded from day one as Baltimore’s team, with an attitude that mirrors the city, tough, resilient, unpretentious.
Arena-wise, you’d need something fresh or massively renovated, but Baltimore is primed for downtown redevelopment, and a public-private partnership could see a new arena emerge as part of a larger urban revitalization strategy. If smart ownership and civic collaboration could pitch the NHL team as a catalyst rather than a burden, there could be real traction politically and financially.
In terms of media value, Baltimore doesn’t just give you local viewership; it extends your footprint into the broader Maryland and Delaware regions and chips into Pennsylvania and even southern New Jersey. It also splits a share of D.C. market influence. From a regional broadcasting perspective, it gives the NHL leverage.
Baltimore doesn’t scream expansion like some flashier cities, but it’s exactly the kind of undervalued, high-upside play that a long-term investor should be watching closely. It’s not about betting on what exists now, it’s about betting on what an extremely viable market could become with the right story and the right leadership.
A Market Built for Loyalty
Cleveland is one of those markets that gets shrugged off too quickly by people who miss how identity and emotional infrastructure play into building a lasting franchise. It’s not the hottest market, it doesn’t have flashy demographics, and it’s not exactly on anyone’s shortlist. But for a savvy investor, someone who’s interested in building long-term durability, it may be wise to take a serious look at Cleveland.
It’s a top-35 media market with strong local loyalty, and it’s a real sports town. It has generational, blue-collar, emotionally-invested, deep-in-the-blood sports fandom. The NFL Browns, despite decades of chaos, still command one of the most loyal fanbases in football. Over in MLB, even with limited spending and a small payroll, they consistently draw and maintain relevance. That tells you there’s infrastructure for loyalty. In an NHL context, that matters. You’re not starting from scratch; you’re inserting a team into a city that already knows how to care about its teams.
You also have history: the former Barons, the AHL's Monsters, college programs, youth programs, there’s been the faint pulse of a hockey heartbeat there for a long time, even if it’s been dormant at the top level.
The real bet here is the fertile cultural ground for a team that’s branded the right way. Think of what Pittsburgh did by leaning into the blue-collar, steel-town ethos and turning the Penguins into part of the city’s identity. Cleveland can do the same thing, but possibly even stronger, because the appetite for winter sports is real, and hockey gives people something to rally around during the long, cold months that football doesn’t cover.
From a business standpoint, the challenge is the ceiling. This isn’t going to be a $1B+ expansion fee city unless there’s a strong local group ready to play ball. The corporate base isn’t massive, but it’s solid enough, and if it’s tied into a Rust Belt regional strategy (Cleveland–Detroit–Pittsburgh–Buffalo–Columbus), it could actually help bolster a critical corridor in the league’s media map. You could carve out a deeply engaged, rivalry-driven division that gives the NHL a tighter regional identity, less about flash, more about tradition and intensity.